In order to better manage energy resources, it will be necessary to monitor and measure energy demand at the individual points of consumption, in homes, at places of business, and at industrial sites. The central point for electrical power distribution in homes, businesses, and factories is the load center, where the branch circuits are organized with branch circuit breakers occupying branch circuit spaces in the load center, and connected through the circuit breakers to an incoming main power bus. The load center is an advantageous location for installing the capability to monitor and measure energy demand.
The universal installation of energy monitoring equipment in homes, businesses, and factories should be simple, practical, and affordable. In the prior art, the installation of intelligent circuit breakers to monitor energy consumption required replacement of existing circuit breakers at a significant expense. The installation of other branch circuit monitoring systems required the installation of current transformers and wiring or multiple, miniature circuit boards in the load center, fastening each current transformer or circuit board to each individual branch circuit line. Such a solution is not necessarily simple, practical, nor inexpensive for a retrofit within the confines of the load center enclosure.